Microsoft’s Mobile Payment Service Utilizes Windows 10 Features

Ease of payments at the till is newest trend catching up worldwide after the launch of Apple Pay in September 2014. After Samsung Pay and Google Wallet, Microsoft is set to get on contactless payments bandwagon.

The announcement was made at this year’s WinHec in China. And it was mentioned that Microsoft Windows 10 with the NFC payments feature would be hitting almost 190 countries this coming summer.

In order to gain a wide acceptability, Microsoft’s payment method is compatible to work with all contactless card readers just like Apple Pay and Google Wallet.

Another important feature to be a part of Microsoft’s payments in Windows 10 is support for Host Card Emulation. This technology would enable any Windows NFC smartphone. It would not only make the payments safe by only storing the user’s credentials on the mobile payment provider’s servers, but also lets Microsoft to skip agreements with the mobile carriers as they tend to leave mobile payments market. This would also mean that Microsoft will be able to work directly with Visa, America Express, and Mastercard without requiring the support from carriers.

In its initial phase, Microsoft payment wouldn’t get a widespread support unlike the Samsung Pay. Because Samsung Pay reverse engineers the existing POS magnetic card readers by adding a case on the smartphone making it pretend just like any other credit/debit card, but Microsoft would require POS terminals to be equipped with the NFC chip technology.

Biometric sensors are also an important feature coming on the Windows 10 indicating that the payments service would be making use of finger-print or retina scanners giving an added security benefit. Actual interface for handling the payments has not been disclosed as yet with tech pundits deliberating over the fact that if it is going to be a simple transactor or follow a Google Wallet-like pattern.